do you expeet the pupils to ask questions in English or answer you when you ask them in English?

Yes, actually I do that, but I know that a lot of them would never ask if they had to use English asking. Because they don't have the language or...eh...the vocabulary for doing that, so not always when we are in full class, they might ask in Norwegian. But we have a kind of saying that sometimes if I hear a Norwegian word or something, I then snap my fingers at them, and pretend I am writing their names down, putting their name there, I heard a Norwegian word....but that is more when they very often work in small groups or two and two together and then they have to speak English. No Norwegian at all. They say, if they don't find a word they have to try to explain in other ways, so I think we xxxx Norwegian words.

My aim is to talk English the whole lesson...eh...both me and the students. Ehm...and when they work in groups when they are working on oral presentations or I try to make them speak English, but of course they are more comfortable speaking Norwegian, so it's quite difficult to make them. For when we have discussions in class, in full class, we talk English. But our grammar book is written in Norwegian. So...eh...we...eh...have grammar lessons in Norwegian. Well I write well when I teach for instance I write the word noun in English, but when I talk about it, I talk Norwegian. So, I don't know if that is the right thing to do, but most of the time...eh...we speak English. And I have 10th grade so it is easier now, than with 8th grade. They are not used to that from elementary school, I think.

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yeah they , I've got...eh...I got feedback that it was too difficult and I even write English on their lesson plan and for the week I always write in English and that causes a lot of frustration, they didn't understand and I had like four students that are really on the lowest level and they are kind of starters in English and I have students who are native speakers as well, so you know, with two lessons a week and two grades to set, so it is, so I have to do both, to speak Norwegian as well. But I think that they are starting to get happier with using English as a classroom language, they say it is getting easier now.

So my aim is to make it a kind of culture, you know, so it is a...eh...that they will do it without thinking about it. When English class starts and I start talking English they will automatically speak English themselves, so that is the aim. But it is...ah...easier said than done, but I think it is fun to teach now beçuse this class I am having now, they like to talk English. And also they do it, so that is great I think it is very important to talk English the whole lesson because I have a couple of students that say it is too difficult, then they are frustrated but Lthink that if they don't hear Engfish they will never learn it, so...hehe...they have to. I think they will pick up on it eventually.

8: I try to,..ehm...do stationwork. Yeah... . M: okey

where I had all these things, it was two weeks ago or something, we were supposed to be two teachers, but we were not, so I had to handle it myself, but it works great and then we had all these things covered in one lesson and they had to work, I used the clever, the bright, the best student, he had his own kind of station and, so he were one, he ran one of them and...eh...and...eh...they were prepared, they had prepared a text, they were supposed to know a text quite well before we had the station work, and my station was supposed to discuss in a group, in a small group, what is important with this text we've read, what...ehm...and kind of prepare to retell in front of me. Well, I heard the whole session though, so I could, you know, take these aims and..hehebe... I was surprised myself.

Because during this one lesson I had groups of four or five students coming the whole, so I had actually covered all the students in one lesson and I think it was like two students that didn't participate at all, they did not talk, so they were kind of, and it was so easy to, "what do you think, what do you think about that?" I could really, so that was...eh...hm...hehehe...I was vety surprised!

Yeah, so it is possible to, to cover it all.

Yeah, you just have to endure the loudness when we have...hehe...because we like, well I like, classes that are silent and I can talk and they listen, but I don't think they learn so much then. So I have to accept that they are kids, more noise in my classroom and everyone's participating. And you don't have to work on that you are not in control of every single thing because that is difficult.

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But they are, often they are very happy about the lesson and they say that they learn more and if you have a check then to where you ask them to write down four things that you learned or something, to just have a check then they, seems like they actually do well instead of sleeping when I am talking.

Chuckle....

yes.

M: good! That's it. Do you have any other comments on the curriculum or the change or the number of lessons as a final comment?

I just think it isvery unfair that we have twolessons a week and that we haveto set two grades.

really too much and I am teaching Norwegian as well and it is exactly the same. I

-haVe2 afid å half hour a we&, so I am setting four grades ifitO,I thinkitis supposed to a kind of examination subject, I mean we should have more time for working with it and we get students from primary school that really, they are really doing worse at the National tests, so...eh...to kind of raise the level and I think it is unfair with so fe lessons, really. You have to...eh...it's actually...eh...it is Whatth4 do ihthCir sPare time that is important for how well they are doing in English at school. I think.

yes, how much English they are supposed to do in their spare time M:what's that noise? (ringing noise in the background)

9: School bell!

M: oh, of course —hum, hum...sorry....we haven't go one at my school...

9: Well in,Ifind it that is a bit on the side but, there are no English, well English are not...ah...I don't remember the word...but you don't have to have English when you are studying for...eh...to be a teacher. And I think that is strange. That is not correct.

M: you mean it is not compulsory?

9: No, so it is not compulsory. So...eh...more English, the more competent English teachers in elementary school maybe. Ithink there are a lot of good teachers in elementary school, that is not what Imeant, but I think a lot of them don't have the....hehehe

M: they don't have the skills? To teach English?

9: I don't think they speak English in classroom, at elementary school. I don't think they do.

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M: Do you think if the elementary school pupils had had teachers who spoke English in class you would have had an easier job in meeting the aims?

9: I think so

8: mmm, yes, probably. And I also they tend to take students out of class, especially English lessons I think that, the less proficient students are, are working in smaller groups with other students that are struggling, and instead of being in class, I have now three students who are in such groups for three years and they really don't know the basic, so as I mean it is something wrong with how they do that, do things in. It must be that, concerning English I think it is not good to be taken out of class. lt is better to be in class and to be kind ofjust to listen yeah and to pick things, cause you know you don't learn a new language by writing I am I am I arn, I was I was I was ten thousand times. Still they can't really, still they are writing I were. You just need to be exposed to and to listen and to be, and I think there must be something wrong with how we do it. And they say that, they like better being in class, just listening trying to cope with what we are doing. So it might be easier for them that way. Yes.